The findings also reveal European executives see investing in cloud and AI as becoming central to CX strategy. Providing personalised support as part of an excellent CX is more than ever the goal for all companies. With digital channels now critically important, technology is key to remaining forefront of delivering the best CX. The results come from the third edition of the research, which surveyed 1,035 business executives across five major European markets. The survey highlights the trends and evolution in the market, which will be published across three eBooks, analysing: How AI is changing European contact centres, the Natural Language Processing (NLP) challenges in the contact centre industry, and ways contact centres can improve CX using AI.

Consumer behavior has witnessed a whirlwind of changes in the past decade. Technological developments have enabled all industries to embrace digital transformation at scale. According to IDC, by 2023, digital transformation investment is expected to approach $7 trillion as companies build on existing strategies and investments, becoming digital-at-scale future enterprises. The Customer Experience Officer has snatched away advertising budgets. Customers no longer care about which celebrity is promoting the products. They demand the finest experience across all touchpoints – online and offline. Experts predict that by 2024, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. In order to align with the changing customer behavior, brands have shifted their focus from "what we want to sell" to "what the customer wants to buy".

"Can artificial intelligence actually help connect with customers, let alone engage them?" Nod, if you too have wondered about this at one point or another. The answer is deceptively simple: AI has direct and indirect applications, both of which ultimately benefit the end-customer. AI is no longer a nice-to-have business advantage. It has emerged as a must-have and how.

Bottom Line: This year's hard reset is amplifying how vital customer relationships are and how much potential AI has to find new ways to improve them. The hard reset every company is going through today is making senior management teams re-evaluate every line item and expense, especially in marketing. Spending on Customer Experience is getting re-evaluated as are supporting AI, analytics, business intelligence (BI), and machine learning projects and spending. Marketers able to quantify their contributions to revenue gains are succeeding the most at defending their budgets. Knowing if and by how much CX initiatives and strategies are paying off has been elusive.

Bottom Line: This year's hard reset is amplifying how vital customer relationships are and how much potential AI has to find new ways to improve them. The hard reset every company is going through today is making senior management teams re-evaluate every line item and expense, especially in marketing. Spending on Customer Experience is getting re-evaluated as are supporting AI, analytics, business intelligence (BI), and machine learning projects and spending. Marketers able to quantify their contributions to revenue gains are succeeding the most at defending their budgets. Knowing if and by how much CX initiatives and strategies are paying off has been elusive.

For more than 4,000 years, the advertising industry has been defined by new technologies that allow companies, governments and individuals to attract and retain the interest of their target audiences. In Egypt, papyrus was used to deliver some of the world's first commercial advertising in poster form. The first ever advertising "jingle" or sonic logo was the result of ladies of the night in 750 BC Greece hammering nails into their shoes to produce a distinctive tone to attract clients. The advent of the printing press, radio, television, and now the internet and social media have all radically changed the way in which products are sold. In the mid-1990s, as companies and organisations began recognising the internet's potential as a marketing tool, huge amounts of time and money were poured into establishing online footprints.

While it's not uncommon for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to switch financial institutions, the 2019 FIS Performance Against Customer Expectations report has found that the rate of churn is increasing. Historically, 13%-15% of small and medium-sized firms have been found to be actively reviewing their banking relationships. However, the turnover rate has now risen to 61% among the top 50 U.S. banks and 60% among regional banks. All it may take to push an already skeptical firm to switch is one more bad experience. So customer sentiment analysis could be exactly what financial institutions need to improve customer experience -- ideally, before things ever reach that pass.

Institutions may also consider building different machine learning models for the different regions, countries and languages they operate in.

Customers expect and use multiple channels to access customer support. "Most customers will still prefer to use an automated or self-service option as long as it is convenient and easy to understand," says Jeff Toister, author of The Service Culture Handbook, "because when a customer does want to connect with a human, it's almost always because something is either urgent or complicated." During the recent California mass power outage everything powered by electricity – Internet Wifi, traffic lights, expresso machines – was brought to a halt. The sheer volume of over 700,000 residents looking for information also brought the PG&E website, chatbots and call centers to their knees. The 2019 CGS Customer Service Chatbot and Channel Survey found that AI technology implementations are happening faster than customers are able, or willing, to embrace them.

According to a Deloitte report, "A strong customer experience can not only lead to stronger financial performance but also form the basis for competitive differentiation. Successfully differentiating the brand both in terms of products and the experience can have a positive impact on a company's bottom line with higher conversion rates and increased customer loyalty." Not surprisingly, Gartner has predicted that over 50% of organizations will redirect their investments to CX (customer experience) innovations in 2019. But where should you start -- is that the question echoing in your mind as you read these words on your screen? Well, if you ask us, investing in customer support technology can give you great results in terms of improving your CX. A report indicates that "62% of organizations view customer experience provided through contact centers as a competitive differentiator."